Merry Christmas from Penguin Production Headquarters (Dallas Division)!!

Penguin Production Headquarters has temporarily moved from Nashville to Dallas (well, ok, Ft. Worth really) for the next week. And I am THRILLED to report that I got what I've always wanted for Christmas (well, ok, besides a husband).....a white Christmas! It was beautiful as it fell yesterday and I believe we ended up with about 3 inches. And did I mention we're in TEXAS?? Josey-kitten, my mom and I drove out here Wednesday night....and I'm glad we did with the impending snow. We'll be here until New Years and taking in two Stars games while I'm here.

Anyhow, I hope that everyone out in Roamer Land has a great, great Christmas (or a Happy Hanukkah!) and a fun time ringing in 2010!!

Josey and Sid...checking out the snow

Sid on my parent's front porch marveling at the white stuff!

Would you look at that.....Santa makes Roamers too! (this Sidney Penguin is for my dad...I'll let you know if he ever roams with him :) )

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Thanksgiving.....2008 *shrug*

I am now officially a year behind! Perhaps my New Year's Resolution next month will be to blog more (of course, at the rate I'm going, I won't make resolutions until sometime in September). Anyways, please sit back and enjoy Ali's trip home for Thanksgiving.....from last year :)

Brooks Penguin and I started celebrating Christmas and the winter season a little early -- enjoy!!

On the way to Virginia...

Brooks Penguin and my sister had to stop and get in a game of checkers...

Brooks took awhile to decide on his next move...

Santa!!!

Brooks really wanted to take a little bite out of this HUGE gingerbread house, but we held him back. haha.

With a deer in the winter woodlands. :)

Brooks, Santa, and I all posed for a picture together. :)

Wooden Soldier & Brooks... excellent.

Brooks and a HUGE Christmas tree -- you can't really see him, but he's on top of the gifts under the tree...

Looking up at the tree... see how freakin' huge it is??? Wow.

It was skate time!!!

Checking out the rink before it was time to go out and skate...

It was time to get up close and personal with the ice... haha... Brooks probably should have been giving ME lessons...

Skating = so much fun!

Well -- I guess the final countdown to Christmas is right upon us... haha... I hope you have a great December!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Sidney Penguin and I ate waaaaaaaay too much and we took in a Stars game over the weekend (don't tell anyone, but S.P. does love the Stars).

Until next time....keep on Roamin'!

Give These Girls A Raise!!

You all may remember that twins Nicole and Kaitlin introduced the first Roamer to his human counterpart. Well, Max Penguin was jealous, so another introduction was made (and I will hunt down those pictures in my overflowing e-mail box soon!). Sidney Penguin just couldn't stand to be left out.....and I will let Kaitlin take it from here.....

I'm very happy to let you both know that my sister, Nicole, and I recently achieved what we'd like to call our "Roaming Penguin Hat Trick" -- all three of our Roamers are now signed by their respective players! And yes, that means Marc-Andre Penguin (Nov. 3, 2008), Max Penguin (Dec. 1, 2008), AND a certain Sidney Penguin... ;)

Sidney Penguin met his human counterpart today after the boys' game day skate. Nicole and I arrived at the Igloo at about noon (we cheated because we now live at Duquesne University, less than ten minutes away on foot) and stood along the green fence just outside of Gate 2 alongside a HUUUUUUGE crowd. I was certain that hardly anyone on the roster would approach this unusually large crowd, but I was soon proven wrong. A young hockey team, the Peterborough Petes (Jordan Staal's team from his younger years), was in town, and some of the guys couldn't resist visiting them. Tyler Kennedy walked right up to the crowd and made his way down the line, then Ruslan Fedotenko followed suit. Jordan Staal and Eric Godard then walked to their cars, but when the young hockey players were escorted into the parking lot, Staalsy paid a visit to his former team... and that's when I noticed Sidney Crosby walking towards the group. I tapped Nicole (he's her favorite player), and we watched as he signed autographs for the boys and posed for photos. Then he also walked to the long line of fans and proceeded along the fence. I was stunned, because I hadn't thought for a moment that Sid would approach such a sizable group. I put my jersey aside so that I could document Nicole holding out her Sidney Penguin for Sid to sign. Said documentation has been uploaded to my YouTube account, and here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/spazzingfangirl#p/a/u/0/k9gALVQmwiI

Notes: --The woman following him is a Penguins employee. She set the rules for how long Sid signed for the crowd, and maintained control.

--Sid initially missed Nicole because he was in a conversation with a fan, and Nicole wasn't holding SP over the fence. She didn't want to risk dropping him (although, if she HAD dropped SP over the fence, wouldn't it have been something if Sid picked it up?? :) ).

--The quality is awful because it was recorded by my anxious self using my digital camera...

-- The first two attached photos are of Sid meeting the Peterborough Petes. The third is apparently a look at Sid's thighs... taken by Nicole. The fourth is our RPHT. And last is a screenshot of SC and SP. :)

So there you have it. Sidney Crosby met Sidney Penguin today... and Mama G., Nicole G., and myself have an unofficial "Roaming Penguin Hat Trick!"

GO PENS!!!

Kaitlin G.

  

That? Is just too beautiful for words :)

Can you even breathe with him that close?? *le sigh*

Needless to say, I owe Nicole, Kaitlin, and Mama G. a very huge thanks for all the great pictures and stories!! I don't know, ladies, I'm thinking once you get a taste for the hat trick, you can't stop there! :)

Visiting the Big Boot

I really think I need to add a disclaimer to the Roamers that I will be allowed to go on any trips they take. Geno Penguin went to Italy in August and I could have really used the vacation!

*le sigh*

(you may need to click the photo to enlarge, but check out what Geno took with him!)

Thanks so much to Francesca for sharing her vacay photos!

Letters and Banners and.....Snow??

As I mentioned, I talked to the wonderful folks at the MLF and last week I received my letter! Nancy included a copy of the original sent......I have to think maybe my mailman is a Mario fan and snagged the letter :) There will be more of these to come as we inch toward the next $1,000. I need to look over the financials.....I think we might be over $500 (in hand)....

Isn't it pretty??

I had almost forgotten that last night's game was the home opener with the raising of the banner....so glad I tuned in early! All the Roamers who are waiting to head toward their respective new homes wanted to watch the ceremony. There was a collective "Ahhhhhh" from the group...

There may have been some tears shed as well.... ;)

We have finally arrived at my favorite time of the year. Not only is hockey in full swing, but I just love fall in general (and Nashville's weather is pleasantly autumn-like this year!). It's the time of year where I start to wonder "will we get snow this winter?" (I love snow. Like, a lot.). So I thought I would share some pictures from Carlie from last winter in order to put the bug in Mother Nature's ear that I and Sidney Penguin sure would like to see the white stuff in a few months ;)

Here i go with my pictures again! Lol! I'm going to attach some pictures of S.P. and J.P. in the first snow in Buffalo.:) I didn't even think to do that and my mom is like,"Are you going to take pictures of the first snow with those. . .penguins?!" And i got a big smile and went out there!:) And the one is of my sign i made. In honor of the new commercial i made it say,"A Great Day For WOOOOOOOOO!!!" Lol! And i put next to the sign my puck that Cooke tossed me and this other puck with a picture of Sidney on it and an 87.:)

We love snow almost as much as Stephanie does!

I like this campaign much better than the current "Defy Ordinary"

Photos coming soon of a Roamer visiting Italy! They are well traveled, those Roamers :)

Roamers Go To Camp!

Pens training camp started last weekend and the Big Pens weren't the only ones in the house!

Lexie and her mom got up early and were first in line to get into the Mellon. That wake-up call reaped great benefits:

Brooksie waiting for the boys to arrive

Kris makes sure all the water bottles are ready

Max is finally seeing a little movement on the ice!

Let training camp begin!!

"Ok, boys, we need to see a little more hustle out there..."

Lexie and little Tanger

Little Tang and Big Tang

Kris is waiting his turn to hit the ice...

Lexie, Kris Penguin and some dude :)

Another autographed Roamer :)

Thanks so much to Lexie (and her mom, Tiffany) for these great photos! Seeing Roamers in the hands of the players is absolutely unreal to me. This is Kris Letang's second Roamer encounter (first one was back in February), so, according to Lexie, "he already knew about them" :) Ummmm. Wow. I'm all vklempt just thinking about it!!

Less than two weeks til the season starts.....GO PENS!!!!

"They Are Super Cute!"

After a unanimous vote for me calling the MLF to see if they got the check, I finally got around to it today. And I am thrilled to report that, not only did they receive our check, they love the Roamers!

I spoke to Nancy, the Executive Director (aren't I special?). I simply told her that I had sent a check in March but hadn't gotten confirmation that they got it. She looked me up in their system and said "Oh wait! Are you the one that made the penguins?" Can I just tell you all that, at this point, she could have told me they hated them and I wouldn't have heard her cause I was just so thrilled that she made that connection!

But, don't worry, she went on to tell me that they passed the little guys all around the office and that they loved them! She proceeded to apologize a thousand times for me not getting a letter. Though, really, I was just so giddy that they thought the Roamers were "super cute"! She asked me for my address and we discovered that they had my street name misspelled in their database (Treutland is not exactly a common name...). I really do believe that's where the mix-up came in. My post office is very unforgiving. If you address something to "Treutland Street" instead of "Treutland Avenue", it will not get to me. Grrrr.....

Anyhow, I told her that I was still going strong and that one of our yarn boys was in the hands of Kris Letang only days earlier (pictures coming!!). And I did hint that everyone would just be thrilled if she could take some pics of the boys around their office. Hopefully we might see some soon!

So, I'm glad I called them and Nancy was extremely wonderful to talk to! I am just so excited that they really know about the project and I can't wait to send them another check!! (I think we're about halfway there :) )

Next up: Roamers are enjoying this preseason almost as much as the rest of us!

Hmmmmmm.....

So I'm writing this post to get your thoughts on the subject....

I sent the MLF a check back in March. It was cashed in April. I haven't heard anything from them. I even sent an e-mail back in July to just say "Hey. Just wanted to know if you got our donation". Nothing.

I am not looking for a parade in my honor or anything....I would just like to know that everything got to them ok (I sent three Roamers with the check as well). I worked for a non-profit and we were required to send thank you letters for tax purposes. They were mail merge form letters that our donation computer program just spit out...all I had to do was click "print".....

So, thoughts? Ideas? Comments? I don't want to keep bugging them. And, of course, I will continue sending checks because that's what this project is all about. I guess I'm just a little disappointed I haven't heard anything. Am I making too big of a deal out of this? Or should I book a flight to Pittsburgh and give them the what for? (hee!)

We Had Christmas in July....Now Thanksgiving In August!

In case no one has noticed by now, I'm not so on-the-ball about posting on here. And it isn't for lack of stuff to post! And I promised in my last Penguin Update that I would get something up here....I will not let September come before I do!

So here are pictures that Nicole and Kaitlin sent in around Thanksgiving last year. They took two of their Roamers with them to NYC (with one staying home to keep Mom company). And I had to include their little Happy Thanksgiving picture because it still makes me laugh :)


Nicole and I just thought we'd send our Thanksgiving well-wishes to you and everyone at The Show. :) Our Roamers have a little something to say, too. ;) The photo is attached. We also have pics of our weekend trip to NYC, for whenever you might care to post them.


Nicole and I recently embarked on a two-day field trip to New York City with our Japanese Club from school. When our Roamers heard that there would be lots of sushi to eat, they begged to come! We brought Sidney Penguin and Marc-Andre Penguin with us. (Max Penguin stayed home to keep our mom company. ;) ) I hope you enjoy the pictures.


Our Roamers were excited to be on the bus after waking up at two in the morning to leave for NYC.



Later that day, we stopped in New Jersey to shop at a Japanese marketplace. Our Roamers enjoyed the beautiful NYC skyline.


That evening, we dined in a Japanese karaoke bar. SP helped himself to a whole platter of sushi!



While we drove through Times Square, the yarn boys were dazzled by the glittering lights and Christmas decorations.


SP and MAP enjoyed sight-seeing late at night on the bus.



The next day, we happened to see the NHL store, and it is currently decorated for Christmas! You might be able to see that suspended high above the door is a red hockey skate which doubles as a stocking, stuffed with ornaments and hockey sticks. Directly below that, out of view, is a Christmas tree wrapped in golden lights - and trimmed to look like the Stanley Cup!



Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!




The girls have so much fun with their Roamers! The boys recently helped them move to college. I hear that the little guys are very helpful with the studying! We have quite a few of them helping their friends through the University life....

Thanks Nicole and Kaitlin!! Let us know how all of you are doing at school!

Roamers In My Home State!

Jaime is from my home state of Missouri. So it always makes me giddy to see the Roamers travel around the Show Me State :)

My penguins went on a trip to southern MO with me, and I took some pictures. :) My friends there have some nice property with a pond on it, and I took the little guys for a ride on their ATV. :D They also decorate their house for Christmas more than anyone I've ever seen! I went to help them out some with that. I took a pic of them sitting in the 'ocean' of the big village. It still lacks a few things, but for the most part it was all together. I also tracked down Gracie, their cat, and got a picture with her.

Also, I bought some fingerless gloves a couple of weeks ago, and their the kind that had the mitten tops that you can fold back on them. Since I didn't want those, I took them off, and they reminded me of little beanies...:P Can you guess what I did with them? Unfortunately, there were only 2, and I have 3 penguins. I'm planning on making Marc-Andre Penguin a cap that he can wear backwards, since he's so fond of those. :)

VROOM! VROOM!

The Penguins that Ate Christmas Village

Doesn't Kitty just look thrilled?

I love the caps! How inventive!

Stylin' :)

You can't go wrong with puppies and Roamers!

Hmmmmm....I wonder if I'll get caught up enough that Christmas pictures will stop showing up in July :)

Thanks to a string of very boring temp jobs, I am getting a lot of Roamers done. We're almost at one year of Penguin Production! Orders have slowed down, but are still coming in....I've surpassed 350 orders.....wow! And we're almost halfway to our next $1,000! So take a moment and give yourselves a huge round of applause.....you guys ROCK!!

Next time.....some Roamers go and see the Dave Matthews Band :)